Mr. Jim Breslin:

The way I have explained it is, factually, the legal position. It is important that people make an informed decision. We are not advocating for people to go private within public hospitals. It is important that they make that decision on an informed basis. The only bit that is somewhat unfortunate is that if the insurance companies adopt a position which is that there are no excuses for not having it signed off on as the person arrives in. There are other things to be done with people, particularly those who are sick, as they arrive into the hospital. It would not be a priority for the public hospital to throw a form in front of the patient while it has all these other things to do. As Mr. Mulvany pointed out, it is unfortunate that they are requiring the paperwork to be done at the start of someone's stay. It would be an administratively fair thing for both sides if there was some allowance for that.